APEA takes its responsibilities seriously to be a good environmental citizen at Mount Hotham. The committee sees these responsibilities falling in three main areas:
- how we manage issues such as waste, re-cycling and resource usage within the lodge,
- how we ensure that the building fabric resists environmental wear and tear, including fire resistance and
- how we ensure that the lodge area minimises our impact on the immediate mountain environment.
In terms of waste and re-cycling, did you know that the Hotham Landfill is severely stretched and will reach capacity within the next ten years unless all mountain tenants significantly reduce their waste? Our response is to have a constantly evolving and rigorous approach to minimising waste that has to be removed as garbage and food waste. This is largely Bev’s work and she is always looking for ways that we can reduce, reuse and recycle. Here are some examples:
- Corks are collected and we look at different ways to reuse them.
- Coffee pods are collected and sent to Terracycle. This company sends them off to the appropriate recycler who separates the casings and the coffee grounds.
- All grocery containers are recycled through an op shop.
- Pillows and mattress covers are sent to a local wildlife shelter for animal bedding.
- Fluoro tubes are collected and recycled through Dahlsens Hardware.
- Batteries are taken for recycling to the Hotham Recycle Shed who takes them to a recycler.
- Mattresses are recycled courtesy of Hotham Freight to the Bright Transfer Station.
- Greasy and oily pans are wiped out. Cooking oil ends up in our organics bin.
- Compostable cornstarch bags are used for food waste.
- Used printing cartridges go to the village office for recycling.
- Recycled shopping bags are provided for lodge visitors to use
- Plastic bags, such as plastic bread bags are collected, some are taken to Woolworths and put in their recycle bin. Some are kept at the lodge for when guests want a picnic bag. Resort Management use some of these bags to collect cigarette butts from butt bins around the mountain. For example, Mt Hotham sent 9 kg. of cigarette butts to TerraCycle in July 2016.
Last year 50 tonnes of food waste was collected from around the mountain and Rodney, the mountain’s chief refuse engineer, turned it into 6 cubic metres of compost which is used in re-vegetation programs around Mt Hotham.
All the recycle collected from around the mountain is taken to the recycle shed, bags opened, some sorting, and then the co mingled recycle items are sent to Tambo Waste near Bairnsdale. The empty plastic bags are baled and recycled.
Any foam boxes collected from around the mountain, are bagged and taken at the end of the ski season to Albury Transfer Station. It is then chipped and melted into a block and these blocks are sent to China for reuse into foam products.
TerraCycle is an important partner in APEA’s recycling strategy.
The APEA lodge sends the following items to TerraCycle for recycling;
- Cigarette butts are recycled into shipping pallets.
- All pods can now be recycled.
APEA is a participant in the Green Waste Program (The Living Bin), for which Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, and Mt Buller won the Premiers Award for Sustainability. Despite the popular myth, the food waste that we collect doesn’t go to landfill, it is put into a skip until the skip is full and the skip is then taken to Hotham’s own landfill at Cobungra where Rodney turns it into compost. If you would like to see our recycle shed and the compost skip, contact Bev and we will give you the guided tour.
Mt. Hotham presorts the recycling that occurs on the mountain, before it is sent off to Tambo for recycling. The mountain bails cardboard and the used recycled bags.
When you are on the mountain and would like a 20 minute tour of the recycling centre at Bus stop 9, please contact our Lodge Manager, Bev.
Minimising our waste is every visitor’s responsibility. When the Hotham Landfill reaches capacity the shared expense of taking rubbish off the mountain will cause significant increases in our annual service charges. This will mean increased membership fees. Besides, if something can be recycled or reused rather than being put into the ground, then we know that we’re doing the right thing.
In 2018 the Resort Management Board have introduced see-through blue garbage bags. Blue is the new Black. The reason for this is so that the garbage collectors can identify recycle items in the garbage bags. If noticed the garbage collectors will remove the recycle.
In terms of the building construction and fabric, the Committee recently commissioned a thorough report on the comfort and sustainability of the lodge. This has given the Committee a priority of works, to be implemented over time, that will significantly improve the building’s performance. In line with this report, APEA is also voluntarily improving the building to meet Mount Hotham’s building standards of occupancy and bushfire protection guidelines.
Some of these initiatives overlap. For example, the highest sustainability priority is wall cladding and wall insulation. Appropriate cladding has ensured that APEA is voluntarily meeting bushfire protection guidelines. Insulation has improved the comfort of the lodge and reduced energy bills. The committee approved a summer project to re-clad and insulate the south bedroom and store gable, plus some of the east wall, as well as to rebuild the recreation room fire escape to comply with bushfire attack guidelines. This has now all been completed.
Finally, APEA takes care to minimise the effect of the lodge’s footprint on the immediate area. Many of you will have heard of Mount Hotham’s mountain pygmy possum, or Burramys parvus. The lodge is within the overlay for the pygmy possum’s habitat. Although a Burramys has never been caught within the overlay area, during the lodge re-build it was decided to restrict the re-build to the lodge’s existing footprint. Another famous local ‘mouse’ is antechinus, a hopping mouse who is a little carnivore. These animals are all native to Mount Hotham. The mountain has a no-bait policy to protect local fauna and also young children. Together we are doing our best to protect the local fauna, the club has also made significant plantings of local flora around the lodge.
In summary, APEA tries to be a good environmental citizen at Mount Hotham. Hopefully you have found this information interesting and informative. Next time you are at the lodge, think about what it means to comply with instructions and posters about minimising waste. Ask our lodge manager about Burramys and the other animals. You will learn a lot.